This invention relates generally to telecommunications networks and, more particularly, to multimedia communications networks for providing multimedia service and the like including voice, video, image and/or data.
It is known in certain telecommunications systems to employ conferencing capabilities such that more than two callers or participants to a call may communicate with each other for the duration of the call. Additionally, certain multimedia telecommunications conference systems attempt to simulate face to face meetings of the call participants. Such conference systems permit separate meeting participants to communicate with one another in multiple media such as voice, video, image and/or data from their own calling location without requiring that they convene in the same place.
During a conference call in known multimedia telecommunications conference calling systems, it is generally problematic for participants of the call to follow the pace of the call especially in situations involving multi-site participants. It has been found that often times it is difficult and confusing for the participant to determine who is actually speaking during the conference call. Often this is the case when the individual participants to the call are not familiar with one another, e.g. a newly formed team for a company project. Therefore, there is a need in the art for coordinating the activities of the participants to a conference call including in the multimedia environment.